“City Attorney Herrera has obtained civil injunctions against five violent street gangs that have long plagued San Francisco neighborhoods with their criminal and nuisance conduct. Named in the gang injunctions so far issued by the San Francisco Superior Court are the following:

The Bayview/Hunters Point-based Oakdale Mob

The Mission-based Norteño gang

The Western Addition-based Chopper City gang

The Western Addition-based Eddy Rock gang

The Western Addition-based Knock Out Posse gang

Herrera is currently pursuing a new injunction against two more gangs:

SAN FRANCISCO (Aug. 5, 2010) — City Attorney Dennis Herrera today filed suit against two warring criminal street gangsthat have terrorized San Francisco’s Visitacion Valley for more than three years. The civil complaint filed in Superior Court this morning names the Down Below Gangsters and Towerside Gang as defendants in a civil action that seeks to prohibit an array of gang-related criminal and nuisance conduct by 41 adult gang members within a proposed “safety zone” covering less than two-tenths of a square mile.

If granted by the court, Herrera’s civil gang injunction would bar named gang members from engaging in intimidation, graffiti vandalism, loitering, trespassing, displaying gang signs or symbols, and associating with other gang members under most circumstances within the safety zone. The injunction would additionally prohibit the possession of guns and other weapons, drugs, and graffiti implements within the area at all times. Violations of such injunctions can be pursued civilly by the City Attorney, for contempt of court, or prosecuted criminally by the District Attorney, as a misdemeanor for up to six months in county jail.

“The residents of Visitacion Valley have been caught in a crossfire by warring criminal street gangs, and the injunction I’m pursuing today intends to put an end to it,” Herrera said. “This injunction names 41 adult gang members in two rival gangs, representing the most active and dangerous threats to public safety. As is typical in these cases, most live outside the community they’ve chosen to victimize. As the California Supreme Court majority held in its 1997 Acuna decision on gang injunctions, ‘Preserving the peace is the first duty of government, and it is for the protection of the community from the predations of the idle, the contentious, and the brutal that government was invented.’ The gang injunction we’re pursuing today asserts the right of Visitacion Valley families to live in the peace and safety to which they’re entitled.”

“Gang injunctions like the ones City Attorney Herrera has successfully fought to put in place give law enforcement another important weapon in the fight against criminal street gangs who terrorize our communities,” said District Attorney Kamala D. Harris. “As the chief elected law enforcement leader in San Francisco, I consider this another vital tool in the prosecution of violent criminals. I thank the City Attorney for working with me to help keep San Francisco safe.”